Ivan The Terrible Research Paper

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Katie DeSisto Mr. Guzmán World History I 20 May 2024 Ivan the Terrible Ivan the Terrible’s mental illness caused by his childhood trauma and many deaths in his family led to Russia's downfall in 1500 and left Russia in disrepair for the next leader. But his life’s work wasn’t all that terrible. During his reign, he expanded Russian territories and built one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world, named Basils Cathedral. Russia would not be what it is today without the help of Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible struggled with mental illness his entire life, this is one of the reasons why he got the name Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible used many different tactics to stay in power, including the torture and murder of innocent civilians …show more content…

Ivan used ruthless force and brutal ways to stay in power. Ivan the Terrible had a deep distrust of the Boyars. Before Ivan was even born, his parents also very much disliked the Boyars and when his mom died they thought she had been poisoned. The Boyars would all fight for power because of Ivan's age, he could not assume the throne just yet. He disliked the Boyars, who were a privileged class of very wealthy landowners. He started to raise another class because that's how much he distrusted these people and would exile them to Serbia and give away their land. Ivan decided to hand-pick these people called the Oprichniki who would kill and exile the Boyars and then give the Oprichniki their land. The Oprichniki was a Russian police force handpicked by Ivan the Terrible to eliminate the Boyars. Ivan was scared that the Boyars were gaining too much power, so he made the Oprichniki. The Oprichniki would use excess force on people and started to gain power and were feared in Russia for their excess force. One of the biggest massacres was in Novgorod where they killed over 40 thousand people. When Ivan saw how much power the Oprichniki were gaining, he disbanded them and killed many of their leaders. Ivan wanted power so badly that he would do anything to do so. The Boyars asked for Ivan the Terrible to come back after he left. Ivan the Terrible was very distrustful of everyone around him. In 1564, Ivan fled Moscow and threatened to abdicate the throne because he thought that they were trying to embezzle him and commit treason. The country fell into much despair with the Boyars trying to rule the country. A group of Boyars searched for him and begged him to come back so that he would keep the peace. The Boyars agreed with Ivan. The only way he would come back is if he had absolute power. He made Russia the first nation-state. The first thing he did when he took the throne was to think of

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